AE 844, 846 - falsity is tricky

AE 844

. . . those who are in falsities,
when they have confirmed their falsities
believe themselves to be wiser than others.
The evil do the like
when they are in their evils
and are contriving devices
by which they may do evil to the good;
they then appear to themselves to be ingenious,
yea even wiser than others,
and yet before the eyes of angels they appear crazy.
And this is why their insanity
when they are in falsities
is called in the Word "wisdom and intelligence,"
as in the following passages:

O Lord God, Thou hast hidden these things
from the wise and intelligent,
and hast revealed them unto babes.
(Matthew 11:25; Luke 10:21)

Woe to the wise in their own eyes,
and the intelligent before their own faces.
(Isaiah 5:21)

AE 846 [3]

. . . the Lord wishes man
both to know the truths of His church
and also to understand them;
not, however, from natural light separated from spiritual light;
for natural light separated from spiritual light,
in the things of heaven or in spiritual matters,
is not light but thick darkness.
For man, from natural light separated from spiritual light,
views the things of the church
from self and not from the Lord,
and consequently he can see them
only from appearances and fallacies;
and to see them from these is to see falsities for truths,
and evils for goods.
The fire that propagates and enkindles that light
is the love of self
and the consequent pride of self-intelligence.
Man who thinks from that fire and that light
so far as he excels in genius
and thence in the ability to confirm whatever he pleases,
so far he is able to so confirm falsities and evils
as to make them appear to be truths and goods,
and can even set forth falsities and evils
in a resplendent natural light,
which is, nevertheless, a delusive light
that has been thus exalted by art.
But to apprehend church matters by this light
is not to understand them,
but rather to not understand them,
since by that light alone
man sees truths as falsities, and falsities as truths.